


Ruined

by HunnyBear



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Bonding, Feelings, Fluff, Major Character Injury, Minor Injuries, Not Romance, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 22:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8075716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HunnyBear/pseuds/HunnyBear
Summary: Episode 12 through Max's POV.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In only twelve episodes, Camp Camp managed to capture my heart. And to be fair, I only cried three times while writing this.
> 
> Enjoy.

He fucking ruined it.

Of course he had to fucking ruin it.

Destroying David has been the only thing that has been keeping me from throwing myself into the lake just to get away from this camp. The tears peaking out of his eyes made all the terrible camp activities worth it. I broke the unbreakable: David's spirit. I have been dreaming of this day for weeks now. Sure in most of them it ends up with David wallowing in his misery with booze and I burn the whole god damn camp to the ground, but beggars can't be choosers.

And as I turned away, I thought of that canister of gasoline for the camp's car in the equipment closet. I could at least get the last half of my dream. Nikki and Neil would sure love to help destroy this place.

But then I heard his voice, all dejected and miserable. I almost didn't know for sure if it was him who said it. It had to have been him, no one else was left to speak.

"You're right." He said.

I whirled around. His back was to me so I couldn't tell if he had started to cry yet. The thought of that suddenly made me very uncomfortable. The only other people I had seen cry was my first grade teacher when I asked her if teaching a bunch of kids who hated her filled the void of being an unmarried and childless bitch. And the other was Gwen when she was having one of her nervous breakdowns. While both were amusing and I always love being told I'm right, in made my stomach fill with knots.

"Times have changed, whether I like it or not." David shrugged. "The campers don't care, Gwen doesn't care, even the founder of this place has better things to do."

He finally turned around to face me, and the only water running down his face was the rain. His expression wasn't full of its usual cheerfulness, but it looked like his was filled with what I can only describe as indignation. And the fact that he was looking right at me made it a little bit intimidating.

"That's why I will never stop trying. Because somebody fucking has to." He stated.

He stared down at me, and for the first time ever, I felt small. Sure David was over twice my size and could pick me up with one hand, but it was more than that. Not once in all the days I've been here have I heard him curse. Not even when I ran him over with a bus. He never liked it when any of us did. Like cursing would ruin the illusion that he was happy all the time and it would taint us. And I got David, the "watch your language", councilor to curse at me. You'd think he's been saying it everyday with the way it just slid off his tongue. The fact that he said it to me made me realize something. He may not be ready to give up on the camp or humanity, but he had given up on me.

Then he turned back to the bonfire and kept trying to light it.

I wasn't sure what to do now.

I had won.

I got the satisfaction of knowing that David was done with me. It's what I've wanted this whole summer.

So why did I feel so horrible?

I looked up at the dark sky and back at that ridiculous staff, still lying broken on the ground. I got the whole camp to turn against him, his racially insensitive ceremony was in shambles, and even the rain felt like it was my doing. The day couldn't have gone better even if I had orchestrated the whole thing myself.

And David had to go and ruin it.

Now instead of the wonderful feeling of success, all I felt was guilt. It was moments like this that made me realize why my parents send me away every summer.

"David-" I started. I wasn't sure what to say. I couldn't just stand there and watch, I had to say something. But David wouldn't let me.

"Go back to your tent Max." I flinched at the sound of indifference in his voice. "You'll just catch a cold."

Only David could act like he didn't care and still be concerned for my well being.

Despite his dismissal, my feet wouldn't move. I was already feeling shitty about the whole thing, I couldn't just leave him alone in the rain now.

Then I heard a crack that wasn't from the thunder.

David gasped at the sight of his broken stone. I guess that it was the final straw, because now he just looked angry. More angry than when I tried to kill our mascot, than when followed him into town to spy on him, now that I think about it, it's surprising that he hadn't cracked earlier.

But I guess he was more angry at the world than me, because he screamed at the sky, "Oh give me a break!"

So I guess that's two things I've never seen him do before.

He hit the pile of wood hard.

That was when the tall stack of wood began to shake. And all at once started to fall.

"David!" I called out.

But I warned him too late. In a flash, David was crushed by the logs. Some of them rolled away, but at least three of them where still on top of him.

"DAVID!" I ran to him.

He didn't seem to be moving. And there was a gash on his forehead where the first log hit him. There wasn't a lot of blood, but enough to that I felt my stomach twist worse than before.

I tried to pull David out from under the pile, but with all my ten year old strength, I couldn't budge him. I needed help. I was too small to get him out on my own.

"Gwen!" I yelled.

There was another crack of thunder, and the wind started to blow hard. I was having a hard time breathing.

"Gwen! Nikki! Neil! Somebody! I need help!" I don't think anyone could hear me over the storm. We were alone. I had to get someone.

But I couldn't just leave David out here. What if he was dying? What if he was dead?

Despite all my yelling and the cold rain, David still wasn't moving. I abandoned my effort to pull him out, and started to push the logs off of him. I dug my heels into the ground, and pushed as hard as I could. My feet started to sink into the soft dirt, and I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. But one started to move, and then the rest followed.

With the logs cleared, I started to shake David's shoulders, hoping he would wake up.

"David. David. Come on man. Wake up." He didn't. I wasn't even sure if he was breathing. Was he breathing?

Fuck! What did I learn in David's CPR training?

I clasped my hands together and started pushing all my weight down onto his chest.

"David. You're not gonna die. Not today. You've been stabbed, hit by a bus, a car, and set on fire, a few logs aren't gonna kill you. This isn't how it ends. Eighty years from now, you're gonna be an old man and still trying to run this camp and that's when you get to die. That'll be the end of your story. Not today! Not like this! Now wake up! Wake up David!" He still wasn't moving. So I started punching him in the chest. My eyes were starting to burn for some reason.

"Max?" I heard someone call.

I looked over and I saw Gwen running towards us.

"Gwen! You need to help him!" I cried out.

"Max, what are you- oh my god, DAVID!" She yelled when she saw him on the ground and started sprinting.

She fell to her knees when she reached us. She pushed my hands away from him, gripped David's face in her hand, and turned him to face her.

"Fuck David. What did you do this time?" She muttered to herself.

"Gwen, you need to help him! He's not waking up!" I gripped her shirt and pulled her closer.

She grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "Max, I'm going to help him. But you need to tell me what happened."

Her hand slid down to his neck to feel for a pulse, and she sighed with relief.

"Oh thank god, he's not dead. He's just unconscious." She said.

My gut un-clenched mostly and allowed me to breath easy. At least he wasn't dead.

"Max, what happened?" She asked me.

"I dunno. He was being a dumb ass and hit the logs and they all fell over onto him." I explained.

"Jesus Christ, David. Leave it to you to be killed by your own stupid ideas." She said exasperated. "His head isn't caved in, so he's going to be fine. I'm going to go get the first aid kit, stay with him Max, I mean it!"

Gwen jogged back to the camp, and I could see Nikki and Neil running towards me, both sharing an umbrella.

"Max, what happened- Jesus fuck! Is he dead?!" Neil cried out when he saw David and the blood.

"Oh my gosh Max! You finally killed David!" Nikki exclaimed.

"What? No! I didn't kill him. He's not even dead!" I said, motioning to his body.

"Oh thank god. I do not want to include "Killed a camp counselor" on my summer review essay." Neil sighed.

"He's not dead? Aw man. I'm never gonna get to see a dead body." Nikki gloomed.

"Max... are you crying?" Neil asked, squinting at me.

"What? No. Fuck you. I'm not crying." I rushed out.

Was I crying? I tried to use my damp sleeves to dry my face. I wasn't crying. I haven't cried since I was seven and I broke my arm. It was only the rain that made it seem like I was crying. And even if I was, I certainly wouldn't cry over David.

Neil and Nikki gave each other a worried look before looking back at me.

"Max, did something happen after we left?" Neil asked.

"No. He just said some shit, and... nothing happened." I stated.

"You sure? Because I've never seen you cry before." Nikki said.

"I'm not crying!" I yelled.

 "Okay! You're not crying." Neil hastily agreed. "But you do seem to be upset about something."

"I'm not upset about anything. It's just that..." I paused as I tried to come up with a rational explanation for the way I was feeling. I couldn't think of any.

"God dammit, David!" I yelled, gripping my hair. I whirled around and kicked one of the halves of the broken staff.

I could see Nikki and Neil flinch in my peripheral vision, but I wasn't focusing on them. I was focusing on the staff. That stupid staff with the obnoxious bird on it and the splintered ends. The one David thought would magically make this summer a wonderful and worthwhile experience for us all.

And I had to go and fuck it all up.

Gwen had made it back with the first aid kit and began to bandage up David's head. The Quartermaster had followed her and had seemed to exchanged his hook hand for an umbrella hand.

"At least the rain seems to be stopping. But we should take him inside now. QM, help me pick him up." Gwen ordered.

As the Quartermaster began to bend over to pick up David's legs, I was struck with an idea.

"Stop!" I yelled.

Everyone froze.

"Don't move him, leave him there!" I said.

Gwen rolled her eyes at me. "Max, I don't have time for another one of your crusades against David's well being. We need to-"

"No. This isn't like that." I promised. "Just leave him there for a minute. Quartermaster! Start putting back together the bonfire!"

"Alright then." The Quartermaster snapped off his umbrella and snapped his hook back in.

"Wait, why are you doing what he says?" Gwen asked.

"I dunno. His thing sounds more interestn' than your thing." The Quartermaster shrugged and began to pick up the logs. 

"Max, what're you doing?" Neil asked cautiously.

I picked up the broken halves of the staff.

"Nikki, Neil, where are the others?" I asked.

"You mean the other kids? They're all in the mess hall. Why?" Neil asked.

"We're doing this. We're gonna fucking do this." I started marching back to camp, with Gwen, Nikki and Neil following me.

"And what is it we're doing?" Nikki asked.

"We're gonna do this stupid fucking bonfire." I declared.

"We are?!" They all asked.

"Yep. Now stop asking questions and get you're shit together!" I kicked open the doors to the mess hall.

Everyone on the inside jumped at the sudden noise, but it got all of their attention.

"Everyone listen up!" I yelled as I stood on top of one of the tables. "Change of plans! The bonfire is back on!"

"I thought we weren't doing the bonfire anymore." Harrison said.

"Yeah," Nerris agreed. "You said that-"

"I know what I fucking said!" I yelled. "But forget all of that. We're gonna fucking do this! It's mandatory, so no one gets to sit out!"

Everyone looked at each other, confused as to my sudden change of opinion.

"Preston!" Preston clenched up at the sound of his name. "Go through the costume bins and try and find something for us to wear to fit this stupid Indian theme. Go!"

Preston dashed off.

"Dolph. Find me some glue or something to fix the staff." I ordered.

"But that is solid wood. To fix it you will need at least-" I didn't let him finish.

"I don't give a shit! Just go find me something." I yelled.

"Max, why are we doing this?" Neil whispered.

"... I don't know. Ask me again in ten years and maybe I'll have a good answer." I said.

After barking out a few more orders, everyone was scrambling about to finish the preparations before David woke up.

After some searching, Preston and Gwen carried in a box full of traditional Indian clothes.

"Apparently we don't have any Native American costumes, so this will have to do." Gwen said.

"Not true!" Nikki yelled. "I found this bow and arrow in one of the boxes!"

She shot an arrow across the room and it almost hit Neil, who screamed out of fear.

"Nikki! I told you not to do that!" Neil yelled.

Nikki pranced away, cackling.

"Why do we even have this?" I asked.

"This is what we have left from last year when we had a few kids sign up for our Indian Camp." Gwen said.

"You guys have an Indian Camp? Just when I thought this place couldn't get any worse." I sighed. "Some of this looks really old and decrepit. Preston, can you fix these and make them look better?"

"Are you kidding? I didn't win an award for Best Seamstress for nothing! Oh god, I'm so excited!" Preston yelled.

"Alright, I didn't need to know that." I grumbled.

After having everyone try on an outfit, Preston made adjustments for their sizes, patched up some of the tears, and used spare fabric to give it, as he said, "A more flamboyant look." Even with him rushing his work, everyone's costume looked really good. But then Preston started to cry about how amazing his skills were, so I slapped him in the face and told him to get back to work.

The Quartermaster had managed to fix the bonfire, how he did it with one hand is beyond me. But the wood was too wet to light on fire, so we drenched it in gasoline, used a book of matches, and it lit up in a flash. The fire was bigger than we expected, so Gwen dragged David's body away form the fire so he wouldn't get burned.

Dolph and I tried to use crazy, super, and even hot glue to fix the staff, but the weight of the bird was too much and it kept snapping off. So I resorted to just using duct tape to bind it together.

It was the last thing to do, so I sent everyone outside to the bonfire to wait for me.

This whole thing was really sub par and probably nothing like David had imagined it would be, but it was the best we could do on short notice. With the final layer of duct tape secured, I walked back to the group.

"Alright, I fixed it!" I hollered as I approached the others. "Everyone hurry up and-"

When I cleared the trees, I saw that David was sitting up and staring at me.

Well great. I thought I could at least pass this all off as someone else's idea.

"Aw shit, he's awake." I groaned.

But I couldn't even deny the feeling of relief in my gut now I knew he was okay.

"Max?" He said confused. "Did you-"

I didn't let him complete his sentence. "DO NOT LOOK TOO DEEPLY INTO THIS!" I yelled and jabbed the staff into his face.

"You suck, this world sucks, and one day we're all gonna die and none of it will matter. But if we didn't do this, I'm pretty sure you'd kill yourself or something." I said.

I tried to not look at his face, that was now splitting into his trademark smile.

"*sniff* Oh, Max!" He cried.

Oh god, now he was crying. It was almost as bad as him crying out of sadness.

"Or shoot up the camp." I continued. "I don't know. It was a possibility."

He sniffed again and crouch down to my level. "Thank you." His voice was filled with genuine gratitude, and I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever." I looked away again. "Just take your stupid stick."

When I held it out to him, I could hear the tape give and saw the top half fall to the ground.

At first I thought David was going to cry again or even start yelling, but he just gave me a gentle smile and pushed back the bottom half back to me. As he walked away, I looked at the staff and thought that if he did yell at me, I would deserve it. I was a brat. My parents never missed an opportunity to yell at me for being ungrateful for all they sacrificed to be parents, which wasn't much. It wasn't until I got older that I realized that my parents hated me for ruining their lives and for not being the perfect son they wanted.

But David never yelled at me. He never treated me bad, or made me feel like less than I was. He always tried to make me feel like I could do anything I set my mind to. My own dad never made me feel like that, and David has only known me for a handful of weeks.

Maybe I could-

"Aww." Space Kid interrupted my thought process. "Lucky."

I smacked him in the face with my half of the staff.

Anyway, maybe I could try to be a little less of a shit. But not by a lot, it would ruin our dynamic and then everyone would expect me to be nice.

When David joined everyone around the bonfire and Gwen started to sing his song, I decided to stand next to David.

Neil was right, the whole bonfire experience was pretty nice.

"Hey Max, how'd you start a fire with wet wood anyway?" David asked.

"I'm not an idiot, David." I growled. "I used gasoline."

And I saw his smile slip away and his face grow pale.

"Wait, what?" He froze.

Then the bonfire exploded and singed all of us.

Well, that explains why David never used gasoline to light any of our camp fires.

"Waaahooo!!!" Nikki cried out. "Do it again! Do it again!"

Yep, this whole night was pretty much ruined.

And at the same time, it was just what we needed.

_♪ Camp Campbell is the place for me and you. ♪_


End file.
